


Healing Pod Malfunction

by Rangergirl3



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [10]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Caretaker Lance, Gen, Keith (Voltron) Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-23
Updated: 2019-07-23
Packaged: 2020-07-11 13:16:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19928677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rangergirl3/pseuds/Rangergirl3
Summary: The healing pods aren’t working.As the rest of the team tries to get the Altean med bay back online, Lance is left in charge of their delirious teammate.Turns out there’s more to Keith’s past than what Lance ever could have guessed.





	Healing Pod Malfunction

**Author's Note:**

> Requested by ‘heymynameismollyjk’ on Tumblr:
> 
> ‘Healing pod malfunction’ with Lance trying to get Keith to wake up? I love your stories so much’
> 
> Here you are, mollyjk! I hope you enjoy it :-)

The healing pods are offline. 

Coran is doing everything he can to fix them, but it’s going to take the rest of the team some time to assemble the parts they need. 

Which places Lance into the role of caretaker.

* * *

Keith is really sick. He picked up some illness on his last mission with the Blade, and Lance doesn’t really know enough about Galra genes to know what to expect.

At first, Keith insisted that he’d be fine on his own, but about an hour later, Lance dropped by the infirmary room, like he’d said he would, to find Keith curled up on the bed and shivering as if the temperature was below freezing.

”Keith!”

Lance hurried to the side of the bed, trying to get a look at Keith’s face, but Keith is burrowed so far beneath the blankets that it takes the Blue Paladin a few moments to figure out that Keith is curled up into a ball. 

“Oh, man...”

Lance runs a hand thorough his hair in distracted thought. 

“Uh, okay, so...he’s cold. Right. Blankets. I’ll get more blankets. Maybe that’ll help.”

He rushed over to an empty bed nearby and scoops up another thick comforter. For a second, he considers grabbing a few more, but he decides against it. The last thing he wants to do is overheat Keith.

When Lance drapes the second comforter over the Red Paladin, Keith doesn’t react at all. He just keeps shivering.

Lance looks around the infirmary, wishing that Coran were here. Still, all he needs to do is to keep Keith as comfortable as possible until the pods are back up. 

Lance goes back to the vacant bed nearby and tugs the sheet off of it. It’s thin enough where it won’t overheat Keith, but it might add some sense of comfort.

* * *

Keith hates being sick. Even back on Earth, he would ignore the signals his body sent him until he literally couldn’t stand. There hadn’t been any other alternative.

_You’re useless._

_Stop faking it._

_Quit whining_. 

Keith does his best to block out the memories, but they’re ingrained into his consciousness. When he stays active, it’s easier to ignore them, or push them away, but when he’s sick like this...

He does his best to curl into a smaller ball underneath the comforter, but the words spear through the haze of fever all the same. 

_Weak._

_Lazy._

_Worthless._

Reality almost breaks thorough his memories when a soft material brushes against the side of his face, but as much as Keith wants to believe someone cares enough to notice he’s shivering with cold, he knows better than to hope for any kind of help.

He’s alone.

He should just get used to it.

Maybe, once he finally stops hoping that someday, someone _might_ care, it won’t hurt as much when they don’t.

* * *

Lance isn’t sure if it’s a good idea to wake a sick person up, but Keith clearly isn’t sleeping, even though he hasn’t changed position at all. He’s still curled up in a ball underneath the covers, and it’s time for the medicine that Kolivan had said would help. Keith doesn’t respond when Lance shakes him by the shoulder, and he doesn’t answer when Lance says his name.

The Blue Paladin sighs. 

“Oh, man.”

He takes hold of Keith’s shoulders and tries again.

“Keeeeeith. Come on, Mullet, it’s time for medicine.”

This time Keith rolls over and groans. Lance bites back an irrational surge of irritation at how difficult it’s going to be to get Keith to take his medicine like this. At least the Red Paladin is sort of sitting up against the wall. He should be able to take the medicine this way.

“Come on, Mullet, just - try to stay sitting up, okay? It’ll be f-“

A whispered reply, barely heard. 

“...don’...wanna...”

Lance takes in a deep breath, steadying himself.

”I know, I know, but it’s going to help, yeah?“

At the word ‘help’, one of Keith’s eyes cracks open, but he shuts it again almost immediately.

Lance cocks his own head to one side, puzzled. 

It almost looked like Keith is...scared of him.

_Is the fever already that bad?_

* * *

When someone pulls him into a sitting position, Keith just obeys. He’s too sick to argue. Besides, it would just make the person angry if he made things more difficult. 

But then the person tells him he needs to take medicine, and that causes Keith’s stomach to roll and twist unpleasantly. 

He hates taking the medicine. It’ll make him even sicker. It always did, back on Earth. But after his dad died, no one had believed him. They’d just found ways to make him take it, and then he’d always, always felt worse. One time he’d nearly died, but it had never been reported, and he’d been too scared to say anything about it to anyone.

Before he realizes that he’s talking out loud, he says that he doesn’t want to take the medicine.

The person sitting next to him tells him it’ll help, and that lie is so monumentously untrue that he dares to open one eye and look at them, because he knows they don’t care if it makes it worse. No one really does. They just want to make it look like they did their best to cure him, even though he’s a difficult kid who never ‘responds well to treatment’.

The medicine they give him only makes everything worse.

But no one believes him. 

_He doesn’t want to feel worse._ _He just wants someone to **listen** to him._

* * *

To Lance’s dismay, Keith keeps his eyes closed and his face averted and he even tries to turn his back on the Blue Paladin.

“Whoa, whoa, Keith,” Lance says, reaching out a hand and placing it gently on his friend’s shoulder. “Buddy, I promise, Kolivan said this would help, okay? It’s not going to make you sicker, I promise.”

* * *

Keith only shakes his head and pulls the blanket tighter across his shoulders.

”...don’...need it...” he croaks. “ ‘m..f-fine...”

He’s still shivering with cold, and he wishes whoever this is would just go away and let Keith handle this on his own, like he’s used to.

* * *

Lance can’t help but speak a little sharply then. He’s frustrated and worried, and he doesn’t understand why someone wouldn’t want to take medicine to feel better. 

“Keith, come on. It’s not so bad.”

* * *

Keith swallows. His throat hurts. It’s difficult to speak.

“-b-but-“

The person sitting next to him pushes a cup of water into his hand. 

“Here.”

Then they tug on Keith’s other arm, and he reluctantly releases his hold on the covers. They slide away from his shoulders, leaving his face and chest open to the cold. Keith keeps his head down and his eyes closed, even when he starts shivering again, and the person sitting by him mutters in annoyance.

* * *

”Oh, _mierda_.”

Lance mutters the swear word under his breath, because he’s annoyed with himself. When he’d tried to hand Keith the first dose of pills, he’d missed Keith’s palm and the pills had fallen onto the bedside table instead. It didn’t help that Keith’s hand was shaking hard enough to be a difficult target.

Lance sighs and reaches out to scoop the pills back up, and Keith’s now free hand retreats back into the covers. Once he’s gotten the meds gathered up, Lance reaches for it again, but stops when he gets a good look at his friend’s face. It’s all twisted up in fear, and Lance lets the pills clatter back onto the bedside table, retrieving the cup of water and setting it aside before Keith can spill it all over himself.

”Keith? Keith, buddy, what’s - what’s wrong?“

Keith pulls the comforters closer around him, shaking his head from side to side.

“-don’t - wanna,” he chokes out. “ - t-take - meds - w-worse-“

Tears leak out from the corners of his eyes. Lance stares at him in confusion and dawning realization.

Keith is saying that the medicine will only make it worse.

“-don’ wanna - f-feel - w-worse,” Keith whispers.

Lance swallows. He pulls over a data pad, scanning the instructions that Kolivan had sent over. 

Is there any way he can delay giving Keith the medicine? At least until Shiro or Allura come back? 

* * *

When the hands release their hold, Keith sinks back against the wall, pulling the comforters up and over his head.

To his surprise, the person sitting next to him doesn’t try to force the pills and glass of water back into his hand.

Maybe that will come later.

Then someone is asking him if he’d like to drink something.

Keith’s throat still hurts, but he nods and croaks out a yes. 

The same glass of water is placed back into his hand. Keith knows because there’s a slight chip in the material. He manages to take a few swallows of it before the person sitting by him offers to refill it.

Keith doesn’t want to be tricked into taking medicine, but he is really thirsty, so he lets them refill it. 

The water isn’t as cool as before, but that’s to be expected. He manages to finish off that glass entirely, and then the person sitting by him asks if he’d like some more. 

Keith shakes his head. He wants to lie down again.

* * *

Lance watches Keith carefully for any further signs of distress, but his friend seems okay, if still more than a little wary of the Blue Paladin.

Lance reminds himself that the medicine was double and triple checked by Coran, but all the same...

Lance just hadn’t had the heart to try to make Keith take the meds. Not until he heard back from Kolivan or Coran on how to handle the situation. 

Still, Lance feels awful about failing to give Keith the medicine he needs.

Why did Keith think the medicine would make him feel worse, anyway?

* * *

Someone is asking him why he didn’t want to take the medicine. 

Keith burrows deeper into the blankets before answering. 

“-‘s-always - hurts-“ he rasps. “-don’-know-why. Just-“

A bone-deep ache flares in the back of his head. Keith groans and tries to bury his face into the soft pillow.

”...’lways..d-does...”

Another spearing pain lances behind his eyes, and Keith’s stomach twists in dull despair. This is what always happens when he gets sick. There’s nothing he can do but wait it out.

At least he’s not being poisoned, too.

* * *

Lance thinks for a time. 

He’s heard of people being allergic to different medications. 

Maybe Keith was allergic to something on Earth, and that’s why he didn’t want these meds.

But should Lance give it to him anyway?

The Blue Paladin looks from the medicine, back to Keith, and taps a message into the data pad, sending it to both Coran and Kolivan. It summarizes the situation, and asks if the medicine needs to be administered at this time.

The reply allows him to breathe a sigh of relief. 

If Keith doesn’t want to take the medicine, Lance doesn’t have to take any further action. He just needs to try and keep Keith as calm as possible until further notice.

* * *

* * *

As time passes, the fever dulls Keith’s mind even further, until Keith can only twist and turn from side to side, wishing he could do something to make this pain end, but he knows from long experience that its’ no use asking for help. 

Anyway, the ability to ask for help was conditioned out of him a long, long time ago.

Asking someone for help only made the person hurting you laugh at you and call you weak, and then hurt you more.

Asking for help had only ever made things much, much worse.

Better to simply endure in silence, or, failing that, as silently as possible.

Time creeps on.

He’s so cold, even though he knows he has a fever. He can’t stop shaking, but more than anything else, he wishes his head would stop hurting. His eyes burn and ache with the pain pounding behind his eyes.

Voices from the past echo inside his mind, and they are loud enough to make him believe they’re in the room with him.

_Weak._

_Pathetic._

_**Liar**._

It’s the last one that breaks through his mental defenses.

* * *

At first, Lance doesn’t understand what Keith is saying. He asks Keith if he needs anything, but the half-whispered reply doesn’t make any sense. 

“I’m - _not_ -“

Lance sits back, confused and a little worried. Oh, shit, delirium’s never good. Should he try giving Keith the medicine now?

Keith is even more upset than he was earlier.

Lance decides to wait, just a little bit longer. It would be best if the fever breaks on its own, but unless Keith is calmer within the next few minutes, Lance will have to take action.

* * *

Keith wishes he could just fall asleep, but the voices in his memory won’t let him. No matter how much he tries to bury his head underneath the blankets, he can’t erase the words he heard so many times. 

_You’re faking it._

_Stop whining._

_Get up and do something useful._

Eventually, it’s too much.

* * *

This whole time, Lance has been doing his best to give Keith space. But, when he hears his friend let out a choking sob, Lance leans over the side of the bed and gently tugs back on the covers, just enough to get a glimpse of Keith’s face. It’s pale and tear-streaked and hot to the touch, and Lance swallows hard and scoots a little bit closer to Keith again. 

“Hey, Keith.”

Keith’s eyes are still tightly closed.

”Keith, I know you said you didn’t want to take the medicine earlier. But I promise, it won’t make things worse, okay? It’ll help you.”

Keith tries to hide his face in the blankets again, but Lance tugs the covers away again, still gently, but firmly. 

“Please, Keith. I’ll help you take it, okay? It’s no problem.”

Keith shakes his head from side to side, even though the movement makes him wince in pain.

“-‘ll get m-mad - ‘t me-”

Lance’s fingers tighten on the covers, but he’s not angry at Keith, not at all. The situation is upsetting, but Keith’s not the one to blame.

“No. No, I won’t get mad at you. I’m your friend, and - and friends help each other.”

Keith sniffs. 

Lance continues. 

“Like that time you saved me from getting shot out into space - remember that?”

Keith’s face furrows into an expression of extreme concentration, but he doesn’t answer. 

Lance swallows and goes on.

”It’s okay. You don’t have to remember it right now. But - can you try to take the medicine? Please?”

Keith shakes his head again. Sweat-slicked hair falls into his eyes, and Lance reaches out and brushes it away without thinking. By the time he remembers how adverse Keith is to physical touch, it’s too late. But then, something unexpected happens. 

* * *

When Lance’s palm brushes against Keith’s forehead, the Red Paladin’s shoulders slump forward, and he lets out a small sigh and doesn’t flinch away.

Lance freezes into place, uncertain and confused. 

What’s - going on? 

Keith always hates it when anyone touches his face. 

So why...?

* * *

The voice next to him breaks off, and for a second, Keith is afraid that he’s done something wrong, or the person doesn’t want to be near him anymore, but the person sitting next to him doesn’t leap to their feet, or move their hand away.

The person’s skin is so cool and smooth, and the touch is so gentle. It’s comforting in a way he’d forgotten human contact could be. 

Without thinking, Keith turns his head to the side, trying to lean towards the palm of the person’s hand. 

When the palm of the person’s hand comes to rest on his forehead, Keith lets out another small, contended sigh before he can help himself. It’s the first time in years that he hasn’t shied away from someone touching his face.

He’d completely forgotten how comforting it could be, to have someone nearby who only wanted to reassure him that he wasn’t alone.

* * *

At first, Lance doesn’t quite know how to process this. 

It’s like Keith is so relived to be near someone who actually wants to help him that he’s willing to let down some of his barriers. 

Lance thinks back to when he’d help take care of his nieces and nephews when they were sick. Sometimes what helped the most was a cold compress on their forehead and...and someone nearby. Someone who would just be there and reassure them that they weren’t alone.

Keith has been alone for a long, long time.

Lance blinks rapidly. He won’t cry. He won’t. It’s not like this huge revelation about Keith’s loneliness is heart-breaking, or that being trusted by someone so vulnerable is humbling, or this seemingly tiny moment is huge and life-changing.

No. 

Not at all.

* * *

For far longer than he can remember, Keith has shied away from physical touch because so often, it only led to pain and confusion and fear. 

But whoever this is isn’t hurting him.

They didn’t hold him down, or make him take the medicine. 

They listened to him.

Keith wishes he could tell this person, whoever they are, how much it means, to be able to just be here in this room with someone and not feel afraid, but he still feels awful and he can’t find the words to say.

So instead, he just stays where he is, and to his relief, the person sitting next to him doesn’t move away.

They just stay with him until he falls asleep.


End file.
